All Forum Posts by: Benjamin Sulka

Hey Ben! 

I'm not an agent, but I'm very familiar with house hacking and I do invest a bit farther south in Canton. Born and raised in Stark County - happy to connect if you have any questions I can answer!

@Benjamin Sulka Sure, what would you like to know?

@Benjamin Sulka - No, self-sufficiency test is not taken into consideration when it is a 5% down conventional product on a 3-4 family. It only is applicable for FHA type products. I house hacked a 3 family with a 5% conventional for my last property and it was a breeze. I got the loan via a local portfolio lender.

@Jorge Adarraga- Yes, lenders look badly on borrowers moving from a single family to a multifamily. They view it as picking up an investment property where you normally bring 20% down vs. with a low down payment owner occupied loan. When you move from a single family to a multi, in my experience, lenders require a letter of justification on why you are doing this. For instance, moving for a job, getting married and need more square footage etc. 

If you can start with a multifamily and end with a single family once you are done house hacking is ideal. It will raise way less questions and lenders will understand moving from one multi to another, especially if you are moving into a multi with less units, e.g. moving from a 4 to a 3 to a 2... 

I've househacked multiple times and received this feedback each time.

My last piece of advice would be to find a local portfolio lender that does low down payment conventional products on 3 to 4 families. They have more flexibility with these products since they hold them in house and don't sell them on the open market hence don't have to conform to certain rules. 

For group living/househacking I get higher-end Scratch and Dent from local used appliance companies that take in a lot of perfectly fine appliances with small dents from the big stores.  Most of these companies will also warranty their products for the first few months at least.  Yeah, I have had a couple duds but our used appliance guy here will swap them within 3 months of purchase at no charge. See if you have one of these near you. If you find a good local used appliance company, you can save thousands on appliances.  Plus, they will take a beating anyways in a group setting so scratch and dent is the way I prefer to go as long as the scratch/dent isn't crazy.

I would recommend looking to see if you get lucky and find what you need here before investing full price into a new appliance that will take a beating anyways.